It is to be understood that the instant invention pertains to a machine for severing the breast members of fowl, including old and young chickens, at least small turkeys, ducks and guineas, but for simplicity, the same are hereinafter defined by the generic term "poultry."
The advent and growth of the convenience food market has given rise to the need for machinery which provides high-speed automatic cutting capabilities for various foodstuffs, particularly poultry, and more particularly chickens, into pieces which are easily prepared and served, as well as providing pieces which comprise a practical portion in terms of amount to be served, in addition to also providing specialty pieces such as all thighs, legs, wings, breasts or the like for commercially prepared food service or restaurant menu features, or retail sales features of loose or packaged fresh or frozen pieces, or packaged pre-cooked convenience meal preparations.
Traditionally, mechanical devices for accomplishing the dissecting of poultry members into multiple pieces for the aforementioned purposes, whether it be the poultry breast member or an eviscerated whole bird carcass, has generally been comprised of relatively simple pivotally mounted shear cutting blade devices, either hand operated as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,687,663 to Goldfinger dated Oct. 16, 1928, or foot-treadle operated severing devices as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,310,881 to Swanson, dated Feb. 9, 1943. Other poultry carcass and breast splitting means employ rotary disk knives such as those exemplified by the disclosures shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,169,951 to Hannan, dated Aug. 15, 1939, U.S. Pat. No. 2,957,198 to Cianciolo et al, dated Oct. 25, 1960, U.S. Pat. No. 3,284,846 to Reeves, dated Nov. 15, 1966, and similar rotary disk knife machines disclosed by others wherein a poultry carcass or breast member is severed into component pieces by means of hand manipulating said poultry members, one at a time, into severing engagement with the rotary disk knife.
The most pertinent prior art as regards the instant invention is set forth in the disclosures of Cannon in U.S. Pat. No. 3,564,644 dated Feb. 23, 1971, and Gasbarro in U.S. Pat. No. 3,625,863 dated Dec. 7, 1971, both of which teach machines having the means to automatically and selectively sever poultry breast members into multiple pieces. Albeit, the instant invention is patentably distinguishable over both the Cannon and Gasbarro disclosures, as well as the other disclosures cited hereinbefore in that the instant invention has utility features and new and useful advantages, applications, and improvements in the art of poultry breast splitting not heretofore disclosed, as set forth hereinafter.